I want to say a huge thank you to the Fleetwood team led by Bob Jolly and Derek Priestley. They know how to put on a great show and delivered great racing considering the challenges they faced, organised a wonderful barbeque on Saturday evening, a retirement celebration for John Taylor who has just finished his career in the Royal Navy and a quiz, not surprisingly about John Taylors career. MYA downwind has some videos of this event well worth watching of the evening.
There are some youtube videos with Drone footage of the event here:
I arrived on Friday lunchtime and spent the whole afternoon practicing. It was this time I noticed the first jellyfish. These little critters although some were quite big folded around the fin and with the larger jelly fish attached could stop the boat. When you looked in the water they were plentiful but curiously beautiful to look at them swimming. During the course of the afternoon I hooked about 8 of the things, usually when I was furthest away from the shore. Was this a sign of things to come? Anyway the wind was perfect from the west straight down the lake and we had a great afternoon sailing and tuning.
After a good night’s sleep I was ready for the seeding race and third off in A heat. The wind was from the north-east and if you know Fleetwood, that is down the lake from the clubhouse. The course was very port bias so one stayed close to the shore to be able to pull the boat in if you caught a jellyfish. I had a good start and negotiated the first half of the beat successfully however when I tacked onto starboard for the weather mark the boat stopped. Because it was too far from the shore and the opposite direction of where I needed to go I luffed head to wind to shake the thing off but to no avail so I had no choice but to sail slowly to the weather mark and round it returning to shore. By the time the boat got to me I was last by 30 yards or more. I caught up to the tail enders but 40 yards from the leeward mark I hooked another with the boat slowing considerably and I could not come into shore because there were a line of boats coming away from the leeward mark. In the end I finished 2nd to last having been in the top 3 at the top end of the first beat.
I easily worked my way through the C and B heat although one was constantly worried about hooking something. In the A heat I had another good start and chose a lane up the middle of the lake but well before I needed to tack onto starboard the boat stopped leaving me no opportunity but to sail slowly at 45 degrees to where I wanted to go to clear the jelly. Again I was left in last place and unsuccessfully played the game of catch up.
Again, I went from through B heat and back to A where things went better and I scored a 5th, not a jellyfish in sight.
In the next race I was doing well at the 1st leeward mark however coming away from the mark I was rolled from the boats behind and had caught, a you know what. Once cleared I had dropped several places and ended up 14th.
In the last race of the day myself and Craig were doing well on the first beat but were the most windward positioned boat of the fleet with everyone becalmed. A gust filled in and hit every boat to leeward of us, behind and ahead but we sat there totally becalmed. We were only a few yards from the boats to leeward. After the fleet left us we only got a feint breeze. We had taken a risk being in the middle of the lake and were severely punished.
I found it hard to reconcile the day. All the preparation came to nothing but had to conclude that circumstances were beyond my control. The good news was I started well and had good speed in the light weather.
What was curious and I have no idea how he did it but Brad, who sailed devilishly fast and was always in the right place at the right time, did not seem to be troubled by the jelly fish at all and over the weekend he had a perfect score of 9 bullets. He would have won whatever but how he avoided the critters I do not know.
Sunday was a different story and I was not impacted by the creatures below although did pick up one or two but very near the bank. Having said that I was leading the seeding race on the first beat and picked up a critter near the windward mark so a 20 yard lead turned into second place as I cleared the thing. I held that to the last leeward mark but let two boats through on the last short beat. I should note that Ben Harker took the lead in his own design, self built 3d printed boat and went onto win by a massive margin. Well done Ben.
In race two I did the same thing holding third place to the last leeward mark and somehow let 4 boats through on the last beat. If I had held my position from the leeward mark to the finish in those first two races, I would have finished a respectable 13points which would have put me 5th overall.
It is good to recount the details because I need to understand what happened and how to improve. The good news is I have a fast boat although it can be optimised slightly. Starting was good and the potential is back. The jellyfish made it a bit like the lottery but as always the cream rose to the top. Some had a torrid weekend, and some sailed gloriously through it all with minimal impact.
Despite the jellyfish, Fleetwood made the very best of a badly dealt hand of cards. We will definitely be back.
What did I learn. My rig configuration is good and can produce good speed upwind and downwind. However, I need to learn to sail the boat faster. Brad is noticeably quicker and it is not his boat but more his sailing technique. He was always extra fast in a Britpop. My goosenecks are a little sticky so the bearings need replacing if that is possible or fit new ones.
Other than that, there is the small issue of working out how to get the leading edge of my fin vertical to the waterline which is the right way to go for a perfectly balanced boat.
So, more work to do in preparation for the worlds as this is the boat I will be taking.
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